Family, advocates push for release as detained double amputee faces mounting hardships

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March 17th, 2026

On the left, Mildred Pierre stands in front of the WABE logo. On the right, a picture of Pierre and Rodney Taylor
For more than a year, Rodney Taylor has remained in an immigration detention center. His family and legal representatives say the Gwinnett County barber and double amputee is living in unsanitary conditions as they try to prevent him from being deported. (Tiffany Griffith/WABE, Courtesy of Mildred Pierre)

They talk nearly every day—Mildred Pierre and her fiancé, Rodney Taylor. Together, they built a blended family. But that life was abruptly shattered in January 2025.

Pierre recalls that morning starting like any other, as the couple was preparing to take the kids to school. Then, without warning, ICE agents emerged from unmarked vehicles, some with their hands on their weapons, and surrounded the family car, demanding that Taylor step out.

Taylor, a 47-year-old barber from Loganville in Gwinnett County and a double amputee, has been held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, ever since.

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